Sandal 20 Harrogate 22 13th January 2024
Sandal once again lost the lead against Harrogate in the final minutes of a hard fought contest but in their 22-20 defeat the side continued with their improved form and proved to be stiff opposition against a side in the race for promotion from Regional 1 North East. Unfortunately, the defeat placed Sandal back in the league’s bottom position which means the side has everything to play for in the coming weeks in order to climb higher and out of the relegation zone.
Harrogate made a quality start to their game by scoring a try in the bottom corner in the first minute. The conversion was missed from wide out but the visitors had taken an early 5-nil lead. From the resumption Sandal made ground into the Harrogate half from where a penalty was awarded but Jake Adams’ kick was judged to have drifted wide by the referee after the touch judges had given differing opinions of the result. The sides continued to exchange field positions by playing good attacking rugby which in each case was countered by equally good defensive work. But in the 19th minute Harrogate had to touch down behind the goal line and this gave Sandal a 5 metre scrum from which the ball was passed along the back line until it found Will Henshall who had no trouble in scoring in a position to give Jake Adams the opportunity to convert giving his side a 7-5 lead and the encouragement to push on. A quiet period then followed during which Harrogate failed to convert a penalty. But two minutes layer Cam Allen made a telling break to take play well into the visitors’ territory from where Sandal excelled in attack and this led to Tom Hodson touching down in the top corner. Unfortunately, the difficult conversion was missed but Sandal had increased its lead to 12-5 after 34 minutes which remained until the break with Sandal’s first half play showing real promise.
The second half started badly for Sandal with Harrogate immediately going on the offensive which resulted in an unconverted try being scored after 44 minutes with a move which started in their own half and finished in the top corner to take the score to 12-10. Ten minutes then elapsed without a score until in the 52nd minute the Sandal backs broke loose ending with Luke Adams scoring his side’s third try but with the conversion failing to find its target the score had moved to 17-10 in Sandal’s favour. A Sandal victory was on the cards. Then followed a period of real Harrogate pressure on Sandal’s line which fortunately the home side managed to repel with superb close encounter defensive work on the line with two visitor try attempts being held up. Then in the 68th minute the visitors broke through the home side defence with good handling to score near the posts but with the conversion surprisingly being missed Sandal still held the lead by 17-15. With the clock now running down Sandal was awarded a penalty after 75 minutes which Tom Hodson was able to convert to increase his side’s lead to 20-15. The situation was tense but then the game changed direction in favour of Harrogate when a Sandal kick ahead was fielded by a visitor player only to be tackled whilst in the air as seen by the referee. A Harrogate penalty was awarded and the kick for touch landed just inside the corner giving the side a line out on Sandal’s 5 metre line from where the ball was sent into the backs and a try was scored. The conversion was kicked and Harrogate held a winning score of 22-20. Time was still left on the clock sufficient to take play well into the visitors half with the Sandal side showing real determination to retake the lead. This opportunity presented itself four minutes into injury time when Harrogate was penalised in a position which gave Tom Hodson an opportunity to attempt to kick a winning penalty conversion but the kick was pulled wide, and Harrogate celebrated their 22-20 victory, not won by the visitors but lost by Sandal.

Written by Howard Newton